West Midlands Ambulance Service’s Hazardous Area Response Team (HART) recently joined more than 150 members of staff and volunteers from the NHS in Staffordshire for Exercise Prometheus.
The exercise involving Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Partnership NHS Trust, Combined Healthcare NHS Trust and Burton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was held last weekend (Sunday 7 October) in order to test the NHS response to fire evacuation. The exercise was supported by emergency services representatives from WMAS, Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service and Staffordshire Police.
The evacuation exercise saw vacant wards at Queen’s Hospital, Burton being transformed into a number of hospital units which included a critical care and mental health unit. Firefighters filled the makeshift wards with harmless smoke during the exercise to give the scenario a sense of realism.
Alongside volunteers acting out patient roles the exercise used SimMan simulation mannequins to occupy the critical care beds. It is believed that it is the first time that these mannequins that can ‘talk’, blink and breathe have been used in a NHS emergency drill. During the exercise the high-tech mannequins mimicked a range of health problems, including some life-threatening conditions.
James Price, WMAS HART Manager said: “I would like to thank Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Partnership Trust for the allowing us to get involved in this exercise. We have gained valuable information with regards to patient management in a fire situation. The opportunities to train on hospital premises are few and far between. The lessons we have learned will help develop policies and procedures for HART nationally.”
Geraint Griffiths, Deputy Chief Executive of Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent NHS Partnership Trust, said: “The exercise was as realistic as possible and NHS staff and volunteers did a fantastic job working collaboratively with our partners from all the emergency services.
“The event gave all involved the opportunity to fully test responses to fire evacuation. Any learning from the exercise will now influence the development of any future plans and we hope to arrange further training opportunities involving all NHS Trusts and partner organisations from Staffordshire to make more improvements to our plans.”
[Pictures courtesy of Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Partnership Trust]
